INTERNATIONAL momentum for limited military intervention in Syria gathered pace yesterday amid opposition reports that 4000 people have been killed this month, the deadliest since the uprising began.
France signalled it would be willing to participate in a limited no-fly zone and suggested for the first time that such an operation could be mounted without reference to the UN Security Council, where Russia and China wield a veto.
The United States and Turkey have already discussed the possibility although Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has said ''greater in-depth analysis'' was needed.
But Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Defence Minister called for the establishment of an ''international coalition'' to implement a no-fly zone - a choice of wording that suggests action outside the United Nations is being considered for the first time.
Mr Le Drian ruled out a no-fly zone over the whole of the country, saying such a step would be tantamount to war.
Instead, a coalition of Western states, Turkey and Arab powers could close Syrian airspace between Aleppo and the Turkish border, he told France 24 television.
#1
Mon Dieu! They are going to do something (gasp) unilateral! How evil!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/25/2012 14:18 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The United States and Turkey have already discussed the possibility although Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has said ''greater in-depth analysis'' was needed.
Translation: The Russians are still insisting they will shoot us down.
#5
He** we've got kindergarten classes in my neighborhood that are ready for Syrian intervention without the UN. Somebody tell these guys to go bake more pastries!
OSLO: Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was jailed for a maximum term yesterday when judges declared him sane enough to answer for the murder of 77 people last year, drawing a smirk of triumph from the self-styled warrior against Islam.
An unrepentant Breivik, 33, gave the Oslo court a stiff-armed, clench-fisted salute before being handed the steepest possible penalty, 21 years. His release, however, can be put off indefinitely should he still pose a threat to a liberal society left traumatised by his bomb and shooting rampage last July.
Oh, they'll be over it by then. It's 21 years, after all...
Justifying blasting a government building and gunning down dozens of teenagers at a summer camp as a service to a nation threatened by immigration, he had said only acquittal or death would be worthy outcomes. But his biggest concern was being declared insane, a fate he said would be worse than death.
Let's try both and see...
Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen dismissed a prosecution call for her to label Breivik mad, a ruling that would have seen him confined indefinitely to psychiatric care rather than prison.
The prosecution wanted him put away forever. Reasonable. The problem is Norwegian (and most European) law, which requires that we treat sociopaths, psychopaths and other assorted evil creatures 'humanely'. That's not reasonable...
Some survivors of the slaughter at the Labour party youth camp on Utoeya island, and much of the Norwegian public, had been keen to see Breivik held clearly responsible for his actions and to avoid the insanity verdict that would have prompted him to demand lengthy and traumatic appeals hearings.
For many Norwegians, still shocked by their bloodiest day since World War Two, the details were academic, however.
He is getting what he deserves, said Alexandra Peltre, 18, whom Breivik shot in the thigh on Utoeya. This is karma striking back at him. I do not care if he is insane or not, as long as he gets the punishment that he deserves.
Except, of course, he isn't getting what he deserves, since he'll be 54 when he's released from prison.
Dressed in a black suit with a tie and still sporting the blond, under-chin beard familiar from the 10 weeks of hearings that ended in June, Breivik smirked when he entered the courtroom and smiled again as the judge read out the verdict.
#3
Breivik got what he wanted, if declared insane he could be locked up for good and official recognition that his ideology is not madness. He now has plenty of time to write a few books.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
